by Jake Hebert, Ph.D., and Jason Lisle, Ph.D.

In Creation Research Society Quarterly. 52 (3): 177-188

In the biblical worldview, Earth is not just another planet, but the unique world where God placed those who are made in His image. For this reason, some creationists have speculated that our world might have a privileged location in the physical universe. For example, some have suggested that the solar system may be near the center of a sequence of concentric shells of high galaxy number density, accounting for the “quantized redshifts” seen in cosmic surveys. In order to rigorously test for this possibility, it is necessary to first determine the true spatial distribution of galaxies in our local neighborhood. In order to do this, however, it is necessary to correct for the fact that some dim galaxies are too faint to be seen, an effect that becomes more severe with increasing distance. This correction is often obtained via a luminosity function, which gives the fraction of galaxies that fall within a selected intrinsic brightness range. Recently, the Institute for Creation Research has done additional work in this area. In order that the creation science community may be able to intelligently critique future galactocentric claims, this review presents a detailed description of one method for obtaining the luminosity function.

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